EDITORIAL/McDaniel's 'fraud' doesn't add up

Chris McDaniel's election challenge is a step short of a formal legal challenge, first of all. He is appealing to the Republican Party to have himself declared the winner, not a court of law.

It's hard enough to get a court to declare a new election after obvious ballot irregularities. So, it's no wonder Mr. McDaniel is stopping short of going to court - yet, anyway.

To get the Republican Party to declare the loser of the U.S. Senate primary the winner is a highly unlikely remedy, absent any strong proof of fraud - of which there still is none.

The main fraud they're alleging is apparently Democrats who intended to vote for the Democratic nominee during the general election being allowed to vote in the Republican primary. That, however, is not fraud, according to state law.

"As to other potential fraud and irregularities, there is nothing here that meets the standard to show enough fraud in the election to require it to be overturned," observes election expert Rick Hasen at electionlawblog.com.

"At most this shows that the elections were not administered competently in some jurisdictions. (This is not breaking news to anyone who follows how elections are actually run.) There's nothing to show that these problems were deliberate fraud, or done in a way that particularly hurt McDaniel."

Please, let's end the misery. Just stop!

Mr. McDaniel will almost certainly lose this challenge. And while it's within his right to challenge the election, doing so is divisive and hurtful to the cause of conservatism.